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Dessert

Irish Rock

A sweet almond confection made by blanching almonds, mixing with brandy, powdered sugar, and butter, then shaping and garnishing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Irish Rock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. Pick out a few sweet almonds, cut them into straw-like pieces, and blanch them in rose water.

Make and shape the paste

  1. Pound the remaining almonds in a mortar with brandy, powdered sugar, and washed butter until the mixture is very white.

  2. Set the mixture in a cool place to stiffen.

  3. Dip two tablespoons in cold water and use them to form the paste into an egg-like shape.

Serve and garnish

  1. Place the shaped paste in the bottom of a glass dish on a small plate or saucer.

  2. Stick the cut almonds and green sweetmeats onto the rock and garnish with a sprig of myrtle.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Brandy + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Rose + myrtletop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Form the bulk of the paste, giving it body and a mild, nutty flavor.
Bitter almonds
Add a sharper almond aroma that balances the sweetness of the paste.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps it bind into a firm, smooth mass.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for a rich, tender texture and helps the paste hold together.
Brandy
Contributes aroma and flavor to the paste.

The step that matters

Pounding the paste until very white. Thorough pounding breaks the almonds into a fine, smooth paste, so the butter and sugar blend evenly; under-pounding leaves a grainy, uneven texture.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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